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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (43054)	5/9/2004 2:07:45 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793739

Earthworms vs. Earthquakes By Don Boudreaux on The Economy - Cafe Hayek Charles Darwin famously observed his backyard. Over the span of several years, he noticed that the soil had been completely overturned – by earthworms. This turning of his soil resulted from a series of individually minuscule acts of individual earthworms, each crawling and eating and in the process moving tiny particles of soil ever so minutely. The overall consequence is a changed (and healthier) backyard. Subtract any one act – subtract any one earthworm – from the yard and the extent of the soil-turning appears no different than if this act, or this earthworm, remained on the scene. But the sum total of each of these individually almost-irrelevant acts is significant in both its extent and importance. (See chapter nine of Stephen Jay Gould’s Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes for a nice account of Darwin’s recognition of earthwormia’s influence on his backyard.) Compare earthworms (who took years to turn Darwin’s soil) to an earthquake. An earthquake is big, discernable, attention-grabbing; its impact is immediate and vast. Take away a single earthquake, and you notice its absence. I’m tempted to say that, while an earthquake will turn Darwin’s backyard soil every bit as reliably as earthworms will, it will do so with such bluster and heavy-handedness and violence that the final result will be far less agreeable than that of the earthworms’ much more gradual, combined efforts. But who knows if this claim is true? By what standards is the ‘agreeableness’ to be judged? My real point is to warn against the temptation to ignore or to dismiss the small changes that take place everyday in the economy – the introduction of kitchen trash bags with deodorizers; the reduction in the amount of aluminum used to make a soda can; reductions in transportation costs that make affordable fresh fruit more reliably available year round; the invention of Listerine PocketPack breath strips; the availability of toothpaste with hydrogen peroxide; improvements in products that remove stains from clothing and carpets; improvements in the techniques used to freeze foods; the use of vinyl as siding for homes; the increasing availability of darn good sushi even in supermarkets.... the list is practically endless. Pointing to any one of these developments (or any hundred of them) and saying “See, life for ordinary people in market economies is improving!” often inspires derisive dismissals. How much, after all, can a deodorized kitchen trash bag actually contribute to a better life? But add up all the countless, individually nearly insignificant changes taking place every day in market economies – step back and look at progress over several years – and you see unmistakable and significant improvement. Many people who don't appreciate the market look, I believe, for the equivalent of earthquakes -- large, boisterous, glamorous, big one-fell-swoop changes. Such changes can be imagined to be glorious. But can they compare with the market's equivalent of Darwin's earthworms?

To: Lane3 who wrote (43054)	5/9/2004 2:08:38 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793739

The Kurds are upset - upset that Bush is apologizing to the same Arab leaders who supported Saddam while he gassed the Kurds: A Time for Apologies 08 May 2004 KurdishMedia.com - By Vahal Abdulrahman The photographs of Iraqi prisoners being mistreated at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad show an utter disregard for human rights. They are disgusting in every sense of the word. That said, the Bush administration’s reaction to the publication of these photos has been laughable to say the least. The Arab world does not deserve an apology for what a handful of American soldiers did to Iraqis. Since when was the Arab world so concerned about violations of human rights in Iraq? For 35 years the Iraqi Ba’athist regime tortured, murdered, deported, imprisoned, ethnically cleansed, and gassed millions of Iraqi civilians while the Arab world either remained deafeningly silent or raised its voices in support of the former Iraqi regime. As I write these lines, I can hear anti-American voices shout, “Saddam is gone, get over it.” No, not until the Arab world apologizes for its silence. The Iraqi people deserve apologies from the world, especially the Arab world – they need to be told that the world’s silence helped Saddam while their sons and daughters were being buried in mass graves and their holy cities were being attacked and desecrated. Appearing in the Rose Garden at the White House with King Abdullah of Jordan, US President Bush stated, “I told him I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners, and the humiliation suffered by their families. I told him I was equally sorry that people who have been seeing those pictures didn’t understand the true nature and heart of America. I assured him Americans, like me, didn’t appreciate what we saw, that it made us sick to our stomachs.” These words came one day after a televised interview with Al-Hurra TV where Bush reached out to the Arab world in a desperate effort to show them that America condemns torture and other violations of human rights. What makes the apology laughable is the audience to whom Bush spoke. Nice gesture, wrong audience. Bush owes that apology to the people of Iraq, not to the Arab world and most certainly not to the Jordanian king whose now deceased father stood by the Ba’athist regime for most of his political career as Saddam committed some of the most horrific crimes against humanity. The Arab leaders, starting with Jordan’s king, have their own long overdue apologies to offer to the Iraqi people. The Arab world almost unanimously supported Saddam Hussein during his unjustifiable war against Iran that left over two million people killed; an apology from the Arab leaders for that would be nice. There needs to be an apology for the Kurds who were gassed at Halabja on March 16, 1988. The Iraqis need a formal written apology for the families of the residents of mass graves who were turned from human beings with blood and flesh to nameless collections of bones and skulls in bags. The masses of Iraq deserve an apology for every bullet that hit the holy shrines of Najaf and Karbala. As an Iraqi Kurd, I am insulted that Bush is offering apologies to the Arab world at a time when the Arab leaders should be preparing their apologetic remarks to the people of Iraq. There is an important message in Bush’s apology that the Iraqis should grasp: from now on, those who violate human rights will be held accountable and brought to justice. The days of torture and arbitrary accusations are over. But should an incident of torture occur, we will apologize to your neighbors whose hands are stained with Iraqi blood! kurdmedia.com